Lauren, Ashley Cole, Kolo Toure, Patrick Vieira, Gilberto Silva, Sylvain Wiltord and Kanu. The names who made history on September 28, 2002, when Arsenal became the first club to field nine Black players in the same Premier League starting lineup.
While it may not have meant much to the players at the time, 22 years on, the moment still resonates with the club’s fans. After all, it was more than just one match; rather, it was a sign of the club’s continuing and deep-rooted connection with its diverse community and Black Britain more generally.
In recent years that deep bond has been explored and studied in greater depth by Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka, a professor at University College London. What started as research for an academic paper soon became a sold-out talk at the Barbican and then a book, Black Arsenal – co-edited with Matthew Harle – which leans on fans, players, journalists, academics and musical figures to showcase the club’s contribution to Black culture beyond just the on-pitch success stories.
Reflecting on his own childhood, Dr Nwonka, who grew up in north London supporting Liverpool and idolising John Barnes, pinpoints the rise of Ian Wright as vital in forging connections between Arsenal as a club and the culture of Black Britain.
He is equally keen to highlight the trailblazing role played by those before Wright in the ‘nascent moments of Black Arsenal’. Whether that be Brendon Batson, the first Black player to represent the club in 1971 or Paul Davis who came through the academy to make over 400 appearances for the first team and pave the way for many more after.
‘I remembered as a child that Paul Davis was a constant in the Arsenal side but hadn’t really been given full exploration in terms of his contribution to Black British football and Arsenal as well,’ he told .
‘He joined as a teenager from South London in the late 70s and is someone who had experienced the bad times in the late 70s, and the 80s. He dealt with the racism, and the abuse but somehow managed to be present and hang on.
‘If not for that labour, there would not be the pathway for David Rocastle and Kevin Campbell and Michael Thomas – that core group of South Londoners who came after him as well.
‘There are people who came just after him that weren’t recognized in the history, like Raphael Mead who was a local Islington person, Gus Caesar who was from Tottenham and Chris White. But you can’t understand what we appreciate now with Black Arsenal, be it Bukayo Saka or anything else, without first understanding what Paul Davis did.
‘Without him, there is no Ian Wright, the way he became in terms of the cultural significance because Davis already laid the conditions for Arsenal to be the instinctive synonymous home of Black identity and Black culture in London.’
Davis, Rocastle and Thomas would go on to play a key role in Arsenal’s First Division triumphs in 1989 and 1991, the former secured by Thomas’ late winner against Liverpool at Anfield.
By 1992 and the launch of the Premier League, however, Davis’ influence had waned, while Rocastle and Thomas had both left the club. The mantle fell to Wright who, having won the Golden Boot the season previously, would go on to become one of football’s first Black poster boys in the new commercial age.
‘The way he carried himself, his decorum, his particular style, he represented something that was very, very different in terms of the First Division football,’ Nwonka said.
‘He seemed to represent the every day and the commonplace that was Black, of course, but also transcended race in many ways as well. You may make the argument that there were many other kinds of people like him in British football in the 80s and 90s, but they weren’t sporting massive Nike campaigns on billboards and they weren’t winning the Golden Boot every single year. They weren’t in the England squads and they weren’t transcending their sport through being a TV personality.
‘I think Sky Sports and the branding of football accentuated his visibility and made him ultimately, the first poster boy for the Premier League. That had, I think, a massive impact on a sense of recognition and belonging for Black people but you would see white kids with Ian Wright on the back of their kind of shirts, which I think was quite important for multicultural in London.’
Arsenal’s relationship with Black culture has not just been limited to its London roots but has expanded throughout the world.
A green, black and gold pre-match jersey in 2022 was launched to celebrate the club’s Jamaican supporters, while this year’s away kit features black, red and green details as a nod to the pan-African flag and acknowledge the club’s many fans from that continent.
Much of that explosion in Arsenal’s worldwide appeal came under the stewardship of the ‘cosmopolitan’ Arsene Wenger who used his scouting network to recruit the likes of Nwankwo Kanu, Emmanuel Eboue, Patrick Vieira and Thierry Henry during the late 90s and early 2000s.
‘There were always fantastic African players who were playing in European leagues at the time. We just didn’t appreciate them in the UK, in the British leagues,’ Nwonka recalled. ‘I think what Arsene Wenger did was give a certain respectability and credibility to African players, which had been denied to them for many years due to stereotypes.
‘These were fantastic players who excelled under Arsene Wenger and became superstars. He discovered Patrick Vieira and he became one of the best players in the world. Thierry Henry had a Caribbean heritage.
‘That period of time, particularly the Invincibles, took Arsenal to a global level, where people in the African continent, and Black America, began to make connections and form a kind of recognition with those players because they’re successful as well.’
In this current Arsenal side, Bukayo Saka represents the most prominent torchbearer of what Black Arsenal represents having come through the Hale End academy to captain the side this season in Martin Odegaard’s absence.
There is much to celebrate about his story but Nwonka is keen to drill down on one rather unpleasant experience when Saka’s missed penalty in the Euro 2020 final sounded a depressing reminder of the abuse that is still all too common in today’s game and society in general .
‘The educational element in that is it’s very, very possible within sporting culture to adore Black players when they’re winning, but completely denigrate them when things go so wrong,’ he said. ‘And often the kind of division between those two massive polls is 12 yards. You miss a penalty, and suddenly you’re kind of something else than you were beforehand.
‘I think that is always something to consider as we explore or celebrate Black Arsenal is it’s very, very possible to love Ian Wright but hate Black people and we’ve seen many occasions, even in the book itself, where we explore examples where that’s taking place.
‘Particularly the chapter about Arsenal and Millwall and what Ian Wright experienced with visibly Black players who played for Millwall at the same time. Or when he was in the stands at Millwall as a kid watching fans abuse Black players, but he was given a pass because he was actually in the Millwall stands.
‘That kind of myopia is still with us so it’s more of a of cautionary tale. There are things that football can suspend, even for 90 minutes, that are very precious and we must observe those things. But football sometimes always moves in linearity with society, and it’s kind of racial tenor but occasionally, you know, you find moments where football and culture can act as instructive to society.’
Black Arsenal edited by Clive Nwonka and Matthew Harle is out now from W&N.
.
.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.